Metagame: The Highlights from Duskmourn's Fourth Week

Duskmourn has just turned one month old! The Magic: The Gathering expansion inspired by classic horror movies has left a lasting mark on the competitive scene of some formats, especially in Standard and Pioneer, where the Overlords cycle and the inclusion of a combo with Unstoppable Slasher and staples like Fear of Missing Out have significantly transformed the Metagame.

With the World Championship approaching, the latest batch of Challenges could have a direct influence on the event's results for Standard, while other formats deal with their respective dilemmas, some still caused by Modern Horizons 3.

Check out the main highlights of this week's Magic Online events below!

With less than a week to go until the start of the World Championship, Standard has been presenting one of the healthiest Metagames in its recent history, with a diversity of archetypes and a space for innovation that most other formats have not offered.

This week, the Slasher Combo won one of the Challenges and is starting to gain more traction in the competitive Metagame. The deck, which has also been making recurring appearances in Pioneer, is on the list of main archetypes that we should keep an eye on this weekend, as all it takes is finding an appropriate shell for a combo of this level to become the best choice in a competitive format.

The Token variants have gained a new version with Selesnya . The splash for green offers good Meta Call answers to the main decks of the format today, in addition to useful staples against almost all relevant matchups with Pawpatch Formation and Tranquil Frillback.

On the more innovative side, Gruul Delirium, which was already producing some results in Leagues, is finally starting to gain space in Challenges, boosted by Fear of Missing Out and Omnivorous Flytrap. Its presence in the Top 8 of the events this weekend could make a difference in the choice of Sideboards in the biggest competitive Magic tournament of the year, in addition to giving players another viable Aggro option, which goes beyond Prowess or Convoke.

Gruul Surprise returns in the new Standard, boosted by the inclusion of Overlords. Now, Calamity, Galloping Inferno doesn't even need Terror of the Peaks to win games, as Overlord of the Boilerbilges offers just as efficient a clock, with more overall utility in the game.

Despite the announcement that Pioneer will not be supported in the 2025 competitive circuit, the format remains popular on Magic Online and is supported by its player base, including some innovations that continue to happen in Challenges.

One of these is the new version of Four-Color Goodstuff based on the interaction between Zur, Eternal Schemer and the Overlord cycle. In addition to turning them into creatures earlier, Zur ensures that they are even more impactful in combat by giving them Hexproof, Lifelink, and Deathtouch, making them difficult to remove while easily extending the game.

Last week, a list of Dimir Ninjas achieved an impressive result in a Challenge. Now, this same archetype has appeared again in the Top 16 and Top 8 of the Challenges, consolidating itself as a bet for competitive events and demonstrating that Pioneer still has a lot of unexplored territory.

And speaking of unexplored territory, this list of Simic Ramp that made Top 8 in one of the Challenges is another innovative idea that has results this weekend. It takes a while to understand how this deck wins games, but it boils down to putting the most lands in play to trigger Fecund Greenshell to turn your creatures into threats - if that plan doesn't work, Blue Sun's Twilight can always copy and steal creatures from your opponents.

Modern continues to be in a strange scenario. Boros Energy is the absolute best deck, but Mono Blue Belcher continues to grow week after week in the format and is already the second most represented archetype in some Challenges.

Big Mana, especially Eldrazi, also had a relevant participation in the events. Still, we had more diversity of archetypes in the Top 8s this weekend than in the previous week.

This week's highlight is Simic Omniland, which won one of the Challenges. Its plan is no different from what we already know about the archetype: copy Omniscience with Shifting Woodland to win the game with some combo - in this case, Karn, The Great Creator searches for Aetherflux Reservoir and Ancestral Statue for infinite life and infinite damage.

Another deck that deserves attention is the Izzet Wizards or Izzet Flash. It is not the first result of the archetype in Challenges, as it appears occasionally since the Flame of Anor release, however, this version relies heavily on Instant-Speed ​​interactions, even to the detriment of other cards that fit its colors, such as Expressive Iteration.

Legacy remains in the same scenario since the last wave of bans: decks with Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student and Psychic Frog have great results and are accompanied by Eldrazi variants, followed by Mono Red Stompy and a dozen other strategies follow in smaller quantities.

The Forge Combo won two of the Challenges of the weekend. While this does not put it in an “answer against the Meta” space, its presence and results may lead players to look for other ways to respond to the latest changes.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Psychic Frog house with Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student has solidified itself as the best option for Tempo decks in the current Metagame and also finds a home in more attrition-oriented variants, such as the Esper Stoneblade list above.

Like Legacy, Pauper has remained in the same Metagame state since the release of Modern Horizons 3, with only the occasional appearance of new cards and a shift in the most relevant decks in terms of numbers.

In this wave of Challenges, for example, Izzet Terror stood out with a presence in the Top 8 of some events. While it still has less presence than the more popular versions in Dimir and Mono Blue, its sideboard choices seem to align with the current state of the Metagame, having cleaner answers against Affinity, Madness Burn, Kuldotha Red and Mono Blue Delver at the expense of better cards against Broodscale Combo and Gruul Ramp.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!